1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sign board installed on a roadside to exhibit information regarding roads, buildings or street names for convenience of drivers or pedestrians, and more particularly to a structure for supporting a sign board showing driving or walking information, which allows the sign board to be easily and stably attached to a post and which provides an acceptable appearance of the sign board and the post.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In general, various road guide signs, which are intended to show drivers and pedestrians information relating to dangerous circumstances of a road to assure safety and smooth driving conditions, and which are further intended to provide drivers and pedestrians with information relating to a road, such as progressing direction of a road, a distance to a destination, and a destination point, are installed on roadsides, for the drivers' and pedestrians' convenience.
Such a sign board is arbitrarily manufactured into a proper shape and size and installed on a post at a roadside to allow drivers and pedestrians to distinctly recognize its communicative information.
Accordingly, a conventional sign board is hung on a cantilever beam fixed to an upper part of a post having a proper height, which is shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a cantilever hanger 1 is coupled to a post “P”. To this end, the cantilever hanger 1 is provided at its end with a band clamp 2, which is comprised of a pair of semicircular clamping bands 2a and 2b, each clamping band having a pair of flanges at both its ends. The pair of clamping bands 2a and 2b are placed on an outer surface of the post “P” such that the pair of clamping bands 2a and 2b face each other. Thereafter, the facing flanges of the clamping bands 2a and 2b are fastened by bolts 3, so that the cantilever hanger 1 is horizontally supported on the post “P”.
Subsequently, a pair of hinge brackets 6, each of which is formed into a fork shape in its cross section, are coupled to both sides of an upper end of a sign board 5 by bolts 7. The hinge brackets 6 are rotatably connected to two pairs of lugs 4 spacedly provided at a lower portion of the cantilever hanger 1, by hinge bolts 8 and hinge nuts 8a. Each of the hinge bolts 8 is provided at its end with a split pin 9 to prevent loosening of the hinge nut 8a. 
However, since the conventional structure for supporting a sign board has the band clamp 2 comprised of a pair of clamping bands 2a and 2b, which are completely separated from each other, the band clamp 2 must be fastened by the bolts 3 at both its ends. Furthermore, since the hinge brackets 6 of the sign board 5 must be connected to the lugs 4 of the cantilever hanger 1 by the hinge bolts 8 and the hinge nuts 8a, respectively, an operation of coupling the sign board 5 on the post “P” is considerably complicated.
The sign board 5 may be coupled to a post for a street light or a telephone pole other than the dedicated post according to its installation site. However, since the conventional band clamp 2 is designed to have a certain diameter, the band clamp 2 cannot appropriately cope with changes of the diameter of the post “P”. Accordingly, various types of band clamp 2 must be prepared to have different diameters in consideration of diameters of the post “P” on which the sign band 5 is to be installed. This is unfavorable in terms of productivity, compatibility and production cost.
In addition, since the band clamp 2 can accommodate only one sign board 5, where a plurality of sign boards 5 are installed on one post “P”, a number of band clamps 2 corresponding to the number of the sign boards 5 must be prepared. In this case, the installation operation of the sign boards is considerably complicated, and production cost is increased and a cityscape is significantly deteriorated.
Furthermore, since the sign board 5 is partially interrupted by the hinge brackets 6, the functional area of the sign board 5 is reduced, thereby reducing its effectiveness.
Though the respective components are manufactured by iron material and then coated with paint, the components are apt to be oxidized and corroded due to paint damage at their coupled portions after a long time period, thereby causing contamination of the post “P” and reduction of service life of the post “P”.